


The Mystery of Cecily Martin

by nightdotlight



Category: Assassination Classroom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, Short Story, Superpowers, intentional lowercase, might upgrade to good grammar later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-10-05 01:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17315180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightdotlight/pseuds/nightdotlight
Summary: Cecily Martin is a mystery that the students of class 3-E are determined to solve.Even if it kills her in the process.





	1. Chapter 1

If you asked Karma Akabane to identify the individual talents of his classmates, he would likely have little trouble describing what he saw.

 

The new girl, however, was still something of an enigma; having had only two days to observe her, he found his initial analysis significantly lacking in detail.

 

Still, within minutes of encountering the new student, he was interested- a remarkable feat on her part. Usually, it took weeks in someone's company to cultivate anything beyond a mild and enterprising curiosity in their abilities.

 

Achievements aside, she certainly wasn't much to look at from where he sat, several desks behind her: dull brown hair, the same colour eyes, beige-toned skin. Her colours were washed-out; there was no difference between her and the faceless clones that populated the school's main campus.

 

Still, he found himself enraptured by the discrepancies between the two images- the presence of what looked like dirt under her fingernails, the way she obsessively kept her hands visible, while the other students maintained their spotless hands, tucked into their pockets as if the limbs were unimportant.

 

For her, it was obvious they were.

 

Karma had questions.

 

But, they would have to wait, He mused. after all, it was obvious even to others than himself that the girl could be spooked easily.

 

Even when kayano had approached her, she had started and panicked- a true testament to her character. It took a lot of effort to be scared of kayano.

 

Slightly more odd had been her reaction to Irina; though the teacher wasn't much more threatening at first glance than kayano, the new girl's reaction had been far more prominent.

 

Upon seeing Irina's face, she had petrified like the older woman was Medusa, though a far more apt comparison would be one of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

 

Initially, he had contemplated a question in response to the scene: could this girl know of Irina's status as an assassin? But it wasn't possible; the woman, while not a great teacher, was nevertheless experienced in covering her tracks, and he had overheard her discussing the new addition to the class with karasuma; "No, karasuma, I haven't had any dealings with her or her family. Why did she react in that way, when she had no reason to?"

 

"That's a confidential matter, Irina."

 

"Did you tell her?" Irina had whispered, voice harsh with accusation.

 

"Irina."

 

The conversation had ended there.

 

Obviously, karasuma knew something about this girl while Irina remained clueless- a potential source of information for karma's questions, if he played his cards right.

 

In the midst of his confusion and curiosity, he even elected to take a leaf from nagisa's book by writing down what he knew about the girl.

 

• She has brown hair and eyes

• Irina doesn't know who she is

• She's scared of Irina

• ...

 

That was how nagisa found him, mechanical pencil tapping against his cheek as he searched for words, for something to say.

 

"What are you doing?" his friend's voice was thicker than usual, betraying the contents of the plastic cup clutched in his left hand. Karma recognised the drink from photographs nagisa had shown him, of the new and overpriced starbucks frappuccino he had been hankering after for weeks.

 

He couldn't see the appeal, but still accepted the offered sip that nagisa gave him. The sugary taste was cloying on his tongue; his friend giggled at his disgusted expression.

 

Despite karma's implicit refusal of his question, nagisa took a seat next to him, reading over his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, karma could see the strands of azure hair as they entered his field of vision.

 

It wasn't long before a small hand reached over, plucking the book from his fingers, leaving the pencil to maintain its rhythm.

 

Said pencil stopped as karma returned the favour of peering over his friend's shoulder inquisitively.

 

Flicking through the notebook, nagisa found the first blank double page, scrawling "what we know" at the head of one and "what we want to know" at the head of the other in his always impeccable handwriting.

 

"Alright." he turned to karma, blue eyes sharp in that way they always were when they discussed assassination, "what do we want to know?"


	2. Chapter 2

When Kayano first met the new girl, she knew there was something wrong.

 

"I'm Cecily," she had said in what was almost a whisper once she got past her initial panic. Her voice was uncannily steady for the way kayano had seen her hands shake before she clasped the clenched fists in front of her body, in a deceptively calm display of body language.

 

Being an actress herself- and a damn good one, at that- Kayano didn't believe the lie for one second. Instead she concealed her suspicion as she was so apt to do with her bloodlust, and decided.

 

Kayano Kaede would watch Cecily Martin until she found out exactly what was going on with the latter.

 

It was just a bonus when she found out that she wasn't the only one investigating: when Karma and Nagisa approached her one day asking if she knew anything of note, Kayano gladly shared her findings.

 

At closer inspection (while Cecily was asleep on the bus they both took to school), what Kayano had initially thought to be dirt under the other's fingernails looked like traces of gold, permanently embedded in the ends of her nail beds.

 

What looked to be a fine glitter of the same hue also dusted her skin lightly, although her dark hair remained mostly untouched save for where dry skin was crusted with the colour.

 

Kayano, after making a quick note of her findings like her intuition had assured her would come in handy, had sunk back into her own seat, heart racing with the apprehension of being caught.

 

It wasn't only the gold that was odd- Kayano wasn't fully sure, but she thought the way Karasuma acted around Cecily, how he seemed to use a surgeon's precision to choose his words in her presence. For this reason, it was fairly relieving that Cecily never joined them for his lessons, instead staying inside for the majority of the day.

 

And then, once a week, Cecily wouldn't turn up for school.

 

Korosensei, strangely, had never seemed suspicious or questioning of cecily's absence- odd behaviour for somebody who was usually so involved in his students' personal lives. So what had caused him to back off? The only reason Kayano, Karma and Nagisa could think of was that he already knew, but Korosensei's loose lips were infamous when it came to the trivial matters of the students- and it was blindingly obvious that the absence wasn't tied to something as trivial and simple as a doctor's appointment.

 

They had long since decided not to ask Cecily herself- there was no doubt that if they attempted to, she would hinder their investigations in any way that became available to her. Yet, as they continued to investigate, more and more of class 3-E became involved as word of the mystery of Cecily Martin spread.

 

Then, one Thursday in February, she turned up to school.

 

For anyone else, it would have been far from suspicious- but for Cecily, who had been absent every thursday since the school year began, it was odd.

 

It became even more odd when Nagisa pointed out that Karasuma hadn't moved from where he stood in the corner of the classroom all day, and the weirdness reached its peak when after school, Cecily stayed behind for "a couple of minutes" at Karasuma' request. Karma, spying through the window, witnessed the whole thing.

 

"He gave her a gun," he had huffed, having run down the hill to reach his two compatriots. "Just handed it to her, handle first, cool as can be."

 

"Was it loaded?" Nagisa's voice was quiet, fearful. None of the students in the class had ever encountered a loaded gun before, even in their assassination lessons- both Korosensei and Karasuma had forbade the firing of anything other than the anti-sensei pellets they had been provided.

 

Kayano fell into her thoughts. Even with her bloodlust, she had never killed another human being. Her vendetta was against Korosensei, nobody else- she had never touched a gun loaded with real, people-killing bullets, and the rest of the class was the same despite their assassin training. what need could Cecily, a civilian, have with a gun?

 

A hush fell over the trio, each thinking the same thing. Cecily's presence, Karasuma's watch, the gun...

 

Nobody could forget the way Cecily had looked that day- body stiff, eyes staring straight ahead.

 

Something was very wrong.

 

Sitting on her bed fully clothed, Kayano found that she couldn't relax; heart hammering, she flinched at every sound as if it were the gunshot that she could do nothing but fearfully anticipate.

 

Nobody in class 3-E slept well that night.


	3. Chapter 3

Nagisa Shiota had never spoken to Cecily Martin, the new girl who perhaps wasn't so new anymore.

Her routine was ingrained into his mind, not through attention but osmosis- every student in class 3-E knew each other's routines, and hers was no exception to the rule.

One facet of her routine, for example, was the lack of her presence for any and all class activities held outside of the main school building. While the rest of the class spread out on the sunny field to eat their lunches, her figure could be seen through the window, face bent over a desk as she picked aimlessly at whatever was in her lunchbox.

Once, Nagisa had asked Kayano what was in the box.

"Pasta," his classmate had replied. "Gluten free. It's in the book."

Said notebook had become a veritable wealth of knowledge on their classmate, who seemed to grow more and more familiar with each passing entry.

One of the earliest entries, written only days after the notebook had begun in Nagisa's impeccable penmanship, documented the first happening of her seemingly voluntary confinement to the classroom; the beginning of term assembly, "compulsory" for students to attend. Compulsory was a relative term, as Cecily had neglected to attend, instead remaining with Korosensei at the top of the mountain.

"Furthermore," the entry read, "she does not appear to have been punished, as would have been the case had anybody else stayed behind. the reasons for this are unknown, but as only he would have the jurisdiction to prevent her punishment, one must assume the headmaster is involved."

This reclusiveness lasted for a few weeks, until the first exception was recorded.

Nagisa hadn't expected Cecily to come along on the trip to Kyoto- nobody had, in fact, but they were all proven wrong. Even after nagisa had overheard a murmured conversation between their two male teachers, they had thought little of it.

"Isolated... will benefit greatly... the trip..."

"Her guardian... hasn't authorised... need permission..."

Everybody's estimate was roughly the same- that regardless of either man's efforts, Cecily still wouldn't go to Kyoto with the rest of the school.

That expectation was subverted, however, when she joined the rest of the class on the platform, suitcase in hand as she stood next to Karasuma quietly, eyes wide open.

Taken aback, Kayano had retreated to where the other girls had clustered, while Karma had returned to his factory default, muttering "Where's Nakamura?" Before hurrying to find the blonde and likely a new victim for the pair to tease.

Nagisa hid his surprise and instead remained in close proximity, quietly striking up a conversation with Sugino while they waited for the train.

Cecily didn't move from her position- with each glance at her form, Nagisa noticed more and more. Cecily's spine was ramrod straight, muscles taut and strained under her skin, eyes flitting around anxiously. nervousness was written in every facet of her body; as she turned, Nagisa could see her brown hair braided behind her.

When he finally sat down on the train, scribbling in the notebook what he had noticed, he noticed her sitting alone in the centre of the aisle, away from any windows.

It was strange: Nagisa wrote it down before returning to stare at Cecily, registering more details about her position the more he looked.

Her back was straight as a rod, and as he continued to dissect her appearance, she looked up, meeting his inquisitive eyes. Feeling oddly like a rabbit caught in headlights, Nagisa instinctively rushed to disguise his true intentions, only mentally relaxing when Cecily turned away once more to eye the window fearfully.

She didn't relax once during the trip, noticeably forcing her eyes to open even as her eyelids succumbed to the pull of gravity over and over and over again: it was obvious that regardless of how her head lolled and exhaustion threatened to force her head under the water of unconsciousness, she would employ her best efforts to remain afloat, to remain alert, to remain conscious.

Privately, Nagisa contemplated offering the security of his presence and guard, but already knew she would refuse such an offer, and remain wary in the future- something he wished not to happen, lest his and his compatriots' investigation be compromised by his prying.

The rest of the trip to Kyoto passed, at least for Cecily, without preamble; neither Karma nor Kayano nor Nagisa himself noticing any events out of the ordinary taking place.

If she remained practically glued to Karasuma at all times, they didn't feel the urge to take note of it, feeling it par for the course when it came to the teacher's interactions with her- while she appeared skittish at best around the agent, it was the motives behind his apparent protectiveness that warranted investigation more than the behaviour itself.

Pensive, Nagisa considered the way their teachers looked at Cecily, unlike any other student.

Like a debt owed. Concerned, pitying...

Almost guilty, like they had failed in some way a duty toward her.


	4. Chapter 4

The assassin known as Red-Eye wasn't used to being so close to a target; but then again, he thought, there were many things he wasn't used to that had happened today.

Shrugging in response to his own thoughts, he continued to eat his own food, barely paying attention as the individual opposite him continued to talk.

His full attention was brought back to his former target when it spoke.

"I almost forgot; can you wait here a second?"

The assassin nodded slightly, moving back to rest his weight on his hands behind him as the teacher opened a door leading out of the room they were in, hinges silent.

When he came back in, he wasn't alone.

Behind the teacher walked a slight girl about the age of the students he had worked to assist that day- 15 or 16 years old at a glance, but when he met them, her eyes were dark and ageless.

He knew her kind- children who had seen things they would never forget, who had lived through events that remained imprinted on the inside of their eyelids until they closed for the very last time. 

Many assassins had begun like that; it rarely set the stage for a happy life, the fear and anger that came with it a constant burden to bear.

She wouldn't follow that path, though: he could see it in her whole body, wiry with muscle that would be invisible to the untrained eye, a spark still in her eyes when she lifted her face to look him in the eye.

His gaze flickered to the teacher. It was his hands, along with many others no doubt, that had worked tirelessly to cultivate that spark in her eye. Optimism was hard won, and he knew that she had worked the hardest out of all parties involved to claw it back.

At her teacher's motion, she sat down opposite him, accepting with thanks a cup of green tea offered to her. She held it tightly, joints stiff and locked as her eyes refused to move from him- in response, he sat still save for the slow movement of his chest with each breath until her fingers relaxed in their vice grip.

He waited until her shoulders were relaxed as well to speak.

"I'm not going to attack you, you know."

Eyes snapped up from the surface of the tea she had been sipping to fix on his face, clearly surprised.

"No need to look so shocked- what reason would I have to hurt you?" It was rhetorical, both knowing possible answers to the question.

He watched her gaze flicker to her teacher, who nodded encouragingly: turning back to the assassin, she opened her mouth hesitantly.

"What is it like," she stuttered, "assassination?"

He responded with his own question, "What do you mean?"

"You know," as she spoke more, she stumbled less over her words, nervousness clearly melting away. "Being hired, finding your target, eliminating them, getting paid."

At his inquisitive look, she sighed, finally asking the question she had clearly been skirting around.

"Would you do anything you thought morally wrong- I mean, is there a point where you refuse to carry out what you've been paid to do?"

Dark eyes were fixed on her tea again, a furrow between her eyebrows. Red-Eye wondered how long this question had been plaguing her.

Now that he thought about it, it had once plagued him too, he supposed; many sleepless nights had been spent considering the implications of his chosen career, attempting again and again to formulate an objective circumstance in which he would refuse his employer's wishes to preserve his own morality.

"I suppose..." for the first time since he had been a child, his voice wavered slightly- he steeled it before replying. "It depends. My morals are definitely skewed, but I would never compromise them.

"I kill people every day; it's become a fact of life for me. Where I draw the line is entirely subjective- I decided long ago that I had lost enough sleep over the issue. I've had times in my life where I've instinctively abstained from doing something because it felt like betraying myself to even consider it. So, if I were tasked to kill an innocent target: you, for example--"

She tensed slightly.

"--I likely wouldn't."

He watched her muscles relax one by one as her teacher, who had calmly watched the whole exchange, moved over.

"Now, Cecily," she looked up at him, draining the cup of her tea, "has that answered your question?"

She nodded. "It has." Placing her cup on the table, she stood up before bowing deeply. "Thank you, Red-Eye, Korosensei."

"You're welcome." The words slipped out before he could censor them as he usually did: an assassin with manners was a rare find.

"Korosensei" bowed to him also, then left through the same door as his student. Thoughtful, the room's remaining inhabitant watched him exit.

The assassin known as Red-Eye watched the only target he had ever let go leave of his own free will, and wondered where his life would take him next.


End file.
